So Ward Churchill might be fired. It’s LONG past time. The man is a stain on the field of American academics. Aside from evidence that he falsified, fabricated, and plagairized, he is also thief, and a thoroughly despicable human being.

Look at first picture.

Second picture does NOT show cherries where one would expect them. If one is me, at least.

…with the comment that the MD house is cleaner than this.

Good to know.

…I am glad I am homeschooling.

Recent topics I found on one:

-Picture books for 6th grade (one about Emotions and another about Teaching What’s Important About Each of Us)

-What fun movies are good to show in class (because you KNOW that what kids need is more TV time!–this is the single most common discussion question)

-Is 200 WPM TOO FAST for a 6th grader to be reading? (keep in mind that I read at about 300 WPM in 6th grade–the general answer was yes and that a child reading that fast should slow down because it’s just unnecessary and he clearly can’t be comprehending what he reads)

-Halloween activities for middle schoolers (Hello? Not second grade anymore, people! But one of the chirpy responses includes showing The Wizard of Oz over THREE CLASS PERIODS. There’s a reason I say that teaching to the test isn’t a bad thing for some teachers…)

-Christmas crafts projects for middle schoolers (Again! NOT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!)

-Rants about how all parents are unreasonable nutcases (verbatim, there), especially ones whose children are not doing well–either educationally or emotionally–in school and are desperately trying to find a solution.

OTOH, there are some really inspirational posts with teachers either trying to do the right thing or coming up with some really cool activities. But that’s about 1/3rd of the teachers who post, while another 1/3 are the ones looking for movie ideas. (What kind of activity can I do with Happy Feet to justify spending three class periods on it? *disgusted face*) The statistics are against you….

Every so often, I get frustrated by things I see in the homeschooling community. Then I see that. I couldn’t imagine anyone but an unschooler trying to make a writing project out of Shrek II. *shakes head*

So the Bear’s total reading speed is still ridiculously slow, heavily because he inisits upon discussing every. single. picture. as well as nearly half of all words that are even slightly irregular.

Today was the worst. It took him–and I kid you not–40 minutes to read 7 pages in a first grade level book. Normally, he’s a lot better than that. Normally, when he’s dorking around, it might take him 20 minutes. But today, he outdid himself. And it’s not that I MIND talking about the birds or listening to him discuss how a word is put together–it’s just that I can only take so much of it. So I instituted a new rule on page eight: You only get a penny for the page (his reward) if you read a two-page spread in under two minutes. So he read the next 23 pages in 20 minutes flat, including 10-second cushions for looking at the pictures and talking about the pages. He was still dorking around somewhat, but not so that I wanted to pull my hair out.

His effective reading rate was about 23 WPM. This includes the dorking around before mentioned and also the fact that he gets quite spectacularly stuck on words whenever he does get stuck. Fully half his actual reading time is spent being stuck on about one in 20 words. Sometimes he can sound them out quickly, but others…sheesh. You’d swear it was written in cyrillic.

So I’m going to start having WPM targets when he reads that he has to meet to get the penny for the page, cruel mother that I am. I’ll start out with 20 WPM just to get him used to the idea, then up it to 25 and then 30. After that, it’ll increase by 10 WPM per increment. I’m going to keep him reading books with Accelerated Reader grade levels below 3.5 and Lexile levels below 600 until he’s well above 60 WPM–likely above 80 WPM. So I figure we’ll be here a while! For a couple of months, at least.

Of course, there are still tons of good readers left for him to do. We have 10 left from our last library trip, plus a stack of 17 that we own. Then there are 21 more Henry & Mudge books, the last Johnny Lion book, 8 Amelia Bedelia books, half a dozen MORE Syd Hoff books, and plenty of others. So he’ll have plenty to choose from.

Here’s the updated reading list for the grandmas. I’ve been sick (AGAIN!!!), and so has the Bear (though you wouldn’t know it from his energy level…), so the additions are pretty short this week–the bold ones. Oh, and I’ve fixed a couple of typos. *g*

Bob Books, Set 1 Maslen, Bobby Lynn
Bob Books, Set 2 Maslen, Bobby Lynn
Bob Books, Set 3 Maslen, Bobby Lynn
Bob Books, Set 4 Maslen, Bobby Lynn
McGuffey’s Eclectic Primer McGuffey
No, David! Shannon, David
David Gets in Trouble Shannon, David
David Goes to School Shannon, David
Olivia and the Missing Toy Falconer, Ian
Little Bear Minarik, Else
Little Bear’s Visit Minarik, Else
Kiss for Little Bear, A Minarik, Else
Father Bear Comes Home Minarik, Else
Danny and the Dinosaur Hoff, Syd
Biscuit and the Baby Capucilli, Alyssa Satin
Meet the Dinosaurs
Hop on Pop Dr. Seuss
My Pony Jack at the Horse Show Meister, Cari
Mouse Soup Lobel, Arnold
Barkley Hoff, Syd
The Horse in Harry’s Room Hoff, Syd
Johnny Lion’s Book Hurd, Edith Thacher
Johnny Lion’s Rubber Boots Hurd, Edith Thacher
Happy Birthday, Danny and the Dinosaur Hoff, Syd
Danny and the Dinosaur Go to Camp Hoff, Syd
Sammy the Seal Hoff, Syd
Why Benny Barks Milgrim, David
The Hat Keller, Holly
Pal the Pony Herman, PA
Olivia Falconer, Ian
The Lighthouse Children Hoff, Syd
Drip, Drop Weeks, Sarah
Biscuit Capucilli, Alyssa Satin
And I Mean It, Stanley Bonsall, Crosby
Amelia Bedelia Parish, Peggy
Sam Gets Lost Labatt, Mary
Corduroy’s Garden Freeman, Don

In further good news, there are only 8 lessons left in the McGuffey’s First Eclectic Reader–yoohoo!

Both my friend Bekke and I have noticed that many of the uber-popular historical romance names had their origins in Mary Jo Putney characters. This can be called the MJP Effect. This indicates one of two things to me:

A) MJP is really great at picking names that resonate with people,

or

B) MJP is such a great writer that, NO MATTER WHAT HERO NAME SHE CHOOSES, other writers will start using it.

Therefore, I propose an experiment in which she names the next eight heroes of historical romance (I think we have to stick with historical because we don’t yet know if she’ll have this influence over paranormal romace) truly terribly names. If these names are picked up by rother romance writers despite their horribleness, we know the reason for the popularity of names that she chooses is B. If not, then it’s A (perhaps with some B thrown in, but only secondarily).

…this is meaningless.

You scored as Deep Space Nine (Star Trek), You have entered the dark side of the Star Trek universe. The paradise of Earth is far from you and you must survive despite having enemies on all fronts. But you wouldn’t have it any other way because you thrive in conflict and will know what needs to be done to take care of those around you. Now if only the Founders would quit trying to take over the galaxy. Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 94% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 81% Moya (Farscape) 81% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 75% Serenity (Firefly) 75% SG-1 (Stargate) 69% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 69% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 63% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 63% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 56% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 38% FBI’s X-Files Division (The X-Files) 19%

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
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You Belong in New Zealand

Good on ya, mate You’re the best looking one of the bunch Though you’re often forgotten… You’re quite proud of who you are

What Type of Homeschooler Are You?

Mr. Potato Head You have your ideal of how things should look, but youre flexible enough to allow for change. You are not bothered by changing methods, mid-course if necessary. You use an eclectic combination of curriculum sources. Visit my blog: http://www.GuiltFreeHomeschooling.blogspot.com
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The Vegetable Orchestra

*snort* Pretty funny.

My own school district (not in El Paso!) went from about 30-40% “minorities” when I enrolled in K to about 70%. It was about 30% second-gen plus black, 35% Mexican Hispanic, 30% second gen-plus European, and 5% other (first-gen European, Indian, Asian, first-gen African, Middle Eastern, etc.).

One of the WEIRDEST things in our school was a girl named Preti, who was (obviously, from her name) Indian and who adopted a Spanish-accented English and all of the “barrio” mannerisms and paraded as a lower class Hispanic.

Strange, strange girl.

Postmodern art
And more.
And more.

Of course, I’m not kinder to modern art. A few–very few–modernists had talent and were doing sometihng different with it. Most were blatant frauds.

Standing up to this isn’t reverse snobbishness or arrogance. It is intellectual honesty.

The Emperor has no clothes.

It’s time to admit it.

Art professors and gallery directors (read: fascist pigs, a term that is almost quaint in the reeal world but still heard there) are keen to bar the gates against real art. If they let the masses see the real thing, they won’t take blarney from them anymore.